Men first paid attention to pine pollen testosterone in 1971, when a short paper in the journal Experientia reported testosterone inside the pollen of a pine tree. In 2024, men in an 8 week pilot study took a pine pollen tincture under the tongue twice a day and had their blood drawn before and after. Their average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL.
Between those two dates sits most of what a man wants to know before he puts a dropper of pine pollen in his mouth tomorrow morning.
Is pine pollen similar to testosterone?
It contains it. M. Šaden-Krehula and colleagues analysed pollen from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and isolated three androgens from it: testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione. Androstenedione is the hormone your body converts into testosterone. Epitestosterone is a close chemical twin of testosterone that men make alongside it. Scots pine became the first plant in which testosterone was found, and every pine pollen androgen conversation since has started from that paper.
The testosterone in the pollen is the same molecule your testes make. Men who read that in 1971 did what men do, and pine pollen moved from the botany shelf to the gym bag.
The pollen itself comes from the male cones, which release clouds of yellow dust every spring. Each grain has two small air sacs that carry it on the wind, and a hard outer wall that protects what's inside. A 1996 analysis by Zhao put its protein at about 13%. In China it is song hua fen, recorded in herbal texts since the Tang dynasty and listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020 edition). Korean cooks press it into songhwa dasik tea cakes and stir it into songhwa milsu, a pollen and honey drink. Our full guide to pine pollen, from the cones to the Korean tea cakes covers that history in detail.
What the pine pollen testosterone studies found in men
Two pilot studies have now given men pine pollen and measured their blood. Both used a tincture taken under the tongue, and both ran for 8 weeks.
Wolkodoff, 2024, men aged 47 to 78
Neil Wolkodoff published the first study in Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports in 2024. Each man took 1 mL of pine pollen tincture under the tongue in the morning and again in the evening, five days on and two days off. Ten men finished the 8 weeks.
Average total testosterone rose from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL, a climb of 85.9 points. One man went from 282 to 703 ng/dL. The men also filled in the qADAM, a questionnaire on male ageing that asks about sex drive, erections, energy and mood. The average score went from 23.9 to 31.7, a 32.6% rise.
Haase and colleagues, 2025, men aged 25 to 50
The follow-up, by Gerald Haase, Neil Wolkodoff, Stacy Beal and Robert Mordkin, came out in the same journal in May 2025. It recruited younger men and kept the same tincture schedule for 8 weeks. Eleven men completed it.
Free testosterone (the share that isn't bound to proteins in the blood) went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL, about 12% higher. SHBG, sex hormone binding globulin, the protein that grips testosterone and keeps it from reaching tissue, fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L. On the questionnaire, the men's sexual function score went from 15.27 to 20.09, and the number of men scoring above average went from 6 to 10.
So the older men in 2024 saw total testosterone climb, and the younger men in 2025 saw more of their testosterone come free as SHBG dropped. Both groups scored higher on the questions about sex.
Total testosterone rose from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL in 8 weeks.
What men report
The things men say about pine pollen line up with what those questionnaires asked. The first one they mention is stronger morning wood. The second is more drive, in bed and in the gym.
The study men took it morning and evening. A dropper before coffee or straight after the shower is an easy habit to keep, and a second one at night matches what the studies did. If you want more on what men notice week to week and how they fit it around training, read our post on pine pollen for men.
Why men pick a spagyric pine pollen tincture
Both studies in men used a tincture held under the tongue. Mara's Pine Pollen is made for the same routine. You fill the dropper, hold the liquid under your tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow. If you'd rather drink it, stir it into water, tea, juice or a smoothie. One to two droppers a day takes about ten seconds, and a 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.
The pollen is wild-harvested Pinus radiata, and it is cracked-cell. That hard pollen wall that lets a grain survive the wind is broken open before extraction, so the extract draws from the inside of the grain as well as the shell.
Spagyric is an old extraction method. The pollen is extracted, then the minerals left behind in the spent plant material are returned to the liquid. The whole plant ends up in the bottle. The taste is soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness, easy at 6 a.m.
Men who start on powder usually end up here. Powder means a scoop, a shaker and a gritty drink, and a bag that lets in air and light every time you open it. A tincture bottle stands next to your toothbrush or goes in the gym bag, and the dose is the same every time.
Then there's the glass. Light breaks down plant extracts over time, and a bottle on a bathroom shelf sees a lot of it. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. The gold standard is dark Miron glass, and that is what Mara bottles Pine Pollen in, so the extract stays sealed and out of the light down to the last dropper.
Pine Pollen – Spagyric Pine Pollen Tincture
50 ml dropper bottle. Wild-harvested, cracked-cell Pinus radiata pollen.
Add to bagSimple ingredients: premium quality extract. The bottle fits in a jacket pocket or the side of a gym bag.
Questions men ask about pine pollen and testosterone
What is a pine pollen androgen?
It's a male sex hormone found in the pollen. Šaden-Krehula's 1971 work isolated three from Scots pine pollen: testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione.
How did the men in the studies take pine pollen tincture?
They took 1 mL under the tongue in the morning and 1 mL in the evening, five days on and two days off, for 8 weeks. The 2024 group's average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL over that time.
Does the 2025 study show anything about free testosterone?
Yes. In 11 men aged 25 to 50, free testosterone went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL while SHBG fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L.
What pine does Mara's pine pollen come from?
Wild-harvested Pinus radiata. The pollen is cracked-cell and made into a spagyric tincture, bottled in dark Miron glass.